Olivia Rodrigo has ‘no plans’ to return to HSMTMTS
Olivia Rodrigo has “no immediate plans” to return to ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.’
The 19-year-old pop star started her career in the starring role of Nini Salazar-Roberts on the Disney+ series back in 2019 before being propelled to global success with the release of her song ‘drivers license’ in two years later and according to showrunner Tim Federle, she will not be a “huge part” of the show in the future.
He said: “I would never say never to Olivia, and I would never use the word ‘last,’ because I hope the show goes on and on and on and we get like a [Grey’s Anatomy] ‘Patrick Dempsey on the beach with Ellen Pompeo’ moment 17 seasons later. But yeah, I think it’s probably a fairly safe bet to say that, for now, we have so many cast members who we love and who we’re serving, that there’s no immediate plans for Nini to be a huge part of the show going forward. But the world has a way of surprising me and I never say never.”
The GRAMMY Award-winning star did not return to the show – which stars the likes of Joshua Bassett and Sofia Wylie as a group of drama students as they stage a production of DCOM ‘High School Musical’ – on a full-time basis for its third season and Tim explained that it was “impossible” for her to appear more often as her debut album ‘Sour’ took off around the world.
He told Entertainment Weekly: “Well, the reality was, she had this album that did pretty well. Not sure if you’ve heard of it, but it’s called ‘Sour’. And the world was clamoring for [her] tour. From a purely logistical standpoint, the idea of Olivia doing the entire season and doing her tour was immediately looking impossible. But she was and is such an important part of the DNA of the show that it also didn’t feel right to not give an explanation for where the character of Nini went. How do you make both things work, schedule-wise?”
